Instincts
by Dark Ice Dragon
Summary: ·Takeo/Tao· "Taaak - there ya are!" That was all the warning Takeo got. He had enough time to lift his wing up before Tao barrelled into him, slinging an arm around Takeo's shoulder. "What were ya doin?" The question was accompanied with Tao nuzzling his cheek, one of his cat ears flicking past Takeo's hair.


**Summary** : "Taaak - there ya are!" That was all the warning Takeo got. He had enough time to lift his wing up before Tao barrelled into him, slinging an arm around Takeo's shoulder. "What were ya doin'?" The question was accompanied with Tao nuzzling his cheek, one of his cat ears flicking past Takeo's hair.

Contains: Takeo/Tao

Nekomata!Tao, eagle!Takeo.

So I was planning out the Red Riding Hood!M-21 fic and joked that when I'm writing xeno, I sometimes write stuff that looks sexual. So I decided to test that out by writing nekomata!Tao and eagle!Takeo and see how easy writing a kiss went in comparison to the last Takeo/Tao fic I wrote.

Still not a first kiss though, pfft.

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 **Instincts  
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By Dark Ice Dragon

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Takeo had just started packing his guns away after maintaining them when he heard his bedroom door click open.

"Taaak - there ya are!" That was all the warning Takeo got. He had enough time to lift his wing up before Tao barrelled into him, slinging an arm around Takeo's shoulder. "What were ya doin'?" The question was accompanied with Tao nuzzling his cheek, one of his cat ears flicking past Takeo's hair.

Takeo closed the case and locked it. "Cleaning my guns," he said, turning his face towards Tao. They were close enough that their noses almost bumped and Tao would have had a clear view of Takeo's raised eyebrows in question. Tao knew what his case held and would have recognised the scent of gun oil lingering in the air, so there wasn't a need to ask.

Tao didn't answer, only grinning as he slid around Takeo and circled both his arms around Takeo's neck, his ears pricked forward as his tail wrapped itself around Takeo's right leg. It was like Tao was trying to press up as much of himself against Takeo as he could.

Takeo smiled, his wings flexing as he placed his hands on Tao's hips, already hearing Tao's soft purr, but he was more distracted by how a lock of Tao's hair wasn't sitting the same way as the rest. He leaned back and Tao tilted his head at him, until he saw Takeo's hand reach for his hair.

Tao's grin was in Takeo's periphery, but his attention was on Tao's hair, running his fingers through it as he tried to straighten out the stubborn lock.

"Preening me, huh?" Tao teased, laughter under his words.

"Mm." There had been enough animal-based jokes on all three of them and Takeo couldn't deny what he was doing or _why_ he had to do it, just like Tao nuzzled someone from the household the first time he saw them in the morning, or how protective M-21 was over all of them.

Tao didn't move away, standing patiently as Takeo frowned over his hair, trying to make it sit straight. Coaxing didn't seem to do anything, the hair pinging back once Takeo let go, and even licking his fingers to try to fix it didn't do much.

Takeo eventually managed to twist the lock under more hair where it would be pinned by the rest. It wouldn't stay like that for long, but at least for now, Takeo's preening instincts were satisfied.

Since his fingers were already there, Takeo slid his fingers back over Tao's scalp and started to massage the base of Tao's ears, the ears flicking for a second. Tao's purr grew louder and when Takeo looked at Tao, there was a blush growing on Tao's cheeks.

Tao caught him looking and huffed. "You're all pressed up against me and rubbing my _ears_ , Takeo."

Except Tao had been the one to start this... Before Takeo could say anything, he saw Tao's eyes narrow.

With a vague sinking feeling, Takeo recognised the look of an idea sparking behind Tao's eyes.

"And what if I did _this_?"

Takeo didn't have enough time to move before Tao reached down and ran his fingers down Takeo's back, where his wings met flesh and a breathless chirp escaped Takeo's throat. That was where the wings pulled on most, where Takeo couldn't reach without someone else's help. Where there was a vague sense of _wrong_ that was always in the back of Takeo's mind until someone preened the feathers that didn't sit well against his skin.

" _See?_ " Tao crowed with a triumphant grin.

"Yeah, I do." Takeo huffed, rolling his shoulders at the almost ticklish feeling of Tao's fingers.

Tao hadn't pulled his hand away from Takeo's back, tracing circles over his spine with his fingers, large enough to go from wing to wing. Takeo's wings shivered as the muscles Tao passed over trembled.

Takeo wasn't used to being touched there; Tao could touch his own ears and could get used to the feeling, but the wings were his back's natural defence and being touched there was...intimate. Something that he only allowed from people he trusted.

"Somethin' you wanna say, Takeo?" From the way the corner of Tao's eyes moved, Takeo knew he was grinning, his hand still moving in that slow circle. And...dammit.

Takeo wanted more. More than just one finger tracing his skin. Takeo swallowed when Tao started running his fingertips through his feathers, finding the crooked ones from touch alone, the bird instincts singing as things started to feel _right_ again.

"Tease," Takeo managed to say, his breath stuttering as Tao sorted out another feather.

Tao burst out laughing, hooking his other elbow around Takeo's neck again as he leaned back.

"So were you!" Tao grinned at him, looking at him through half lidded eyes. "Are you gonna kiss me yet or am I gonna hafta get _creative_?" As Tao said that, his tail tightened on Takeo's leg.

"No." With that urging, Takeo moved his hand down to the back of Tao's head, pulling him closer.

He sucked in a quick breath at the jolt of static electricity that passed between them before their lips touched.

"Heh, guess I'm getting pretty excited." Tao grinned, wrapping his arms around Takeo's shoulders again. "Try again?"

"Hm."

Tao's lips were warm, a purr shivering out his mouth, when Takeo kissed him.

Afterwards, they pulled back and pressed their foreheads together again, smiling.

Takeo was sure Tao's hair was in disarray again but for the moment, he was content to leave it as was.

"Sooo," Tao drew out, lazily looking at Takeo, "anything else you need help with?"

Takeo shook his head. "I'm done for the day." The last thing he'd needed to do was clean his guns and he'd finished that.

"Great!" Tao stepped back with a laugh, his fingers trailing down Takeo's arm until he caught his hand, tugging him towards the door. "Time to eat!"

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So yeah, I found this a lot easier to write than Warm Up, pfft. Writing was fine; editing was where my brain shut down and went 'meeeeh'. XD; Or I can at least distract myself from the lead-up by exploring the xeno stuff; at the actual kiss it's still ?

There was supposed to be description of the kiss, but yeah, brain noped out on me.


End file.
